Critical reviews (by Lutheran pastors and church musicians) of books and other resources for Christian worship, preaching, and church music from a perspective rooted in Holy Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions and good common sense. LHP Quarterly Book Review asks, "Is it worth the money to buy, the time to read, the shelf space to store, and the effort to teach?"

If you have not heard about this already, you need to be aware that the United Church of Christ has recently, quite literally, lined through reference to God as Father in their governing documents. Friends, you will hear some theologians and pastors, perhaps even ones that claim to be conservative, try to justify this, or make excuse for it, or explain it away, or try to ignore this reality, but here it is: this is apostasy in the raw. There is no fuzz on this peach, no grey areas here. This is nothing more and nothing less than open rebellion against the Holy Triune God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But here is where this raises huge questions for all Christians. Let me put a few of them forward.

How can a baptism performed in a United Church of Christ congregation be recognized as valid and legitimate any longer since the UCC has taken this step?

What implications does the fact that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is in full communion with the UCC have for that church body's commitment to the holy, catholic faith? If the ELCA does not sever its full communion with the UCC over this, that means, frankly, that the ELCA is giving its de facto and tacit approval of this action? And in that case, the implications for any baptism performed in the ELCA are ominous, since full communion is an expression of fundamental agreement and unity in doctrine between church bodies.

Pastor Peters blogged about this and he wisely notes that this decision has implications for all parish pastors in all church bodies. He writes, "It seems that from now on we better check any baptism from the UCC on a case by case basis because any baptism not in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit cannot in confidence be a baptism at all…. just something to think about…."

I don't think we can afford to stick our heads in the sand on this one.

Here are the important details of this disaster from the Louisville newspaper, the Courier-Journal

"According to a United Church of Christ spokesman, it isn't news that the liberal Protestant denomination is moving to delete a reference in its constitution from "Heavenly Father" to "Triune God." Decades of theological change lay behind it. Yet now it is putting the change on record.

It may not be new, but it's still eye-catching to see the words crossed out in the constitutional change, even if the main point of the change was to merge five boards into one. The change would require ratification by two-thirds of the denomination's 38 regional conferences by 2013. [PTM Note: I can't do a line through, so the words I've underlined are literally crossed out in the resolution passed by the UCC]

Here's the salient paragraph from 13 pages of bylaw changes, with the revised language in blue and the deleted language crossed out. It was approved Monday at the denomination's biennial governance meeting.

ARTICLE V. LOCAL CHURCHES

The basic unit of the life and organization of the United Church of Christ is the Local Church. A Local Church is composed of persons who, believing in the triune God as heavenly Father, and accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and depending on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are organized for Christian worship, for the furtherance of Christian fellowship, and for the ongoing work of Christian witness.

Guess said the denomination was dealing "with bylaws written decades ago, before the denomination's commitment to using inclusive and expansive imagery for God." (The term "bylaws" sounds more perfunctory than "constitution," especially when the "basic unit" of the church is described.) Another spokeswoman said members are free to refer to God as father or mother.

The United Church of Christ recorded 1.08 million members last year, down nearly 3 percent from the previous year and down by about half since its peak in the 1960s.

It was formed by a merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church — itself formed by a merger of two historically German Protestant groups, with several congregations in the Louisville area — and the Congregational Christian Churches, whose organizational ancestors included the Puritans. Therein lies a tale.

In more recent years, the denomination has made headlines as the affiliate of President Obama's former church in Chicago, headed by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright; and a controversial TV ad showing bouncers keeping people out of church (in contrast to the UCC's declared inclusiveness.)"

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Martin Luther said:

"There have never been, nor are there now, too many good books."

LHPQBR

Welcome to QBR/Lutheran Book Review

Liturgy, Hymnody, and Pulpit began as a newsletter to pastors, musicians, and laypeople in the Wyoming District of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod from our Worship Chairman to ease the transition from The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship, and Hymnal Supplement 98 to Lutheran Service Book. Early on, we recommended books, CDs, and music. Those recommendations eventually became book reviews.

In Advent 2006, LHP Quarterly Book Review was born. In our first three years, we published 600 pages of book reviews and reviews of other resources, sermons, articles, and editorials.

Our archives are available as downloadable pdf files.

Beginning with Volume 4, LHP QBR switched to a blog format instead.

Since adopting the blog format, we have been able to forward interesting posts from other blogs for your consideration and reflection.

In response to an expressed need, we now have two sub blogs that both feed into Liturgy, Hymnody, and Pulpit Quarterly Book Review.

Readers that wish to only receive our original book and resource reviews and be notified of new resources that we have received may go to http://lhplbr.blogspot.com/, the LHP Lutheran Book Review blog.

Special Thanks to The Rev. Richard O. Boche, Wyoming District President

Contributors and Reviewers are identifiedat the end of each signed article or review.

Note:Unsolicited titles will be considered for review based on the time our volunteer reviewers have available,how interested we believe our readers would be in the unsolicited resource,and how closely related the item is to preaching, Christian worship, and Church music in The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod.

FTC Regulations Compliance

Disclosure of Material Connection: LHP QBR received these books or other resources free from the publisher. We were not required to write a positive review. The opinions we have expressed are our own.

While every effort was made to be as accurate and objective as possible, inevitably, the opinions of the authors of various articles and reviews will surface, and individually, we take full responsibility for them. Opinions expressed are those of the individual contributors, and may not necessarily reflect that of the LCMS, the Wyoming District, or LHP QBR.